I had to write this essay for a history class, so I thought, "What the heck." Enjoy!
Gangs of New York, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewis, may be a rather sensationalized version of history, but it can’t be said that it’s entirely inaccurate. In fact, a great deal of the story is grounded in actual historical events.
In short, Gangs of New York is basically the graphic novel version of the story, like what 300 was to the Battle of Thermopylae. Comic book elements and characters have been added to real-life events to make a far more vibrant and gritty story. In the style of Hollywood, it represents historical events in a more interesting way.
One of the main overarching themes of the movie could be that perhaps people who were born in America as opposed to immigrants were not so different after all, and a common enemy could even unite them if it was powerful enough. The latter is not seen until the end of the movie, during the riots. As the Natives and the Dead Rabbits show up to battle each other, they are interrupted by the Union army trying to restore order, and they find themselves inexplicably on the same side. Both groups are fighting for their own reasons, but they are still fighting a common enemy.
Another main theme was the struggle of the masses against the power of the corrupt rich, especially politicians, as exemplified by Jim Broadbent’s character Boss Tweed. Hardly a scene goes by without Tweed showing possibly even more ruthlessness than Day-Lewis’ Bill the Butcher ever did. For example, when the house is burning down and the competing fire departments are fighting, he gives them permission to raid the house next door. And at the end of the movie, after the riots had died down, Tweed stood in front of the mass graves with a handkerchief daintily covering his nose and he tells his companions that they were burying a lot of votes there.
This brings into question the validity of both kinds of rule: the corrupt power of elected officials and organized government or the violent but perhaps more honorable power of the street gangs. The former relies on backhanded, under the table dealings during which substantial sums of money are traded. The latter relies on hand-to-hand combat on the street, out in the open. The bloodshed might have been terrible, but at least there was no hiding or secrecy. Bill’s story about cutting out his eye that looked away when Priest Vallon was about to kill him is reminiscent of Japanese seppuku, when samurai killed themselves in order to rid themselves of the shame of defeat. The honor code of the gangs may have been brutal and savage, but at least they had an honor code.
Amsterdam Vallon’s internal struggle with avenging his father and accepting his killer as a new father figure is nothing short of Shakespearean. At first, he sees himself as simply getting close to Bill until he could kill him. But after he saves his life from the assassin at the theatre, he realizes that he had come to love Bill as he had once loved his father. That event is what sort of snaps him out of the trance he’d fallen under in Bill’s company. The butcher’s charisma and power would have been, and was, intoxicating to any young, angry orphan. Amsterdam finally realizes he has been a fool and must avenge his father properly. He resurrects his father’s gang, the Dead Rabbits, and proceeds to seek out his revenge openly.
One particularly interesting reference to true historical happenings was the underlying hatred between Catholics and Protestants. It is a centuries-old conflict stemming way back to when England first invaded Ireland and still continues today, though perhaps not as much in New York City. Brendan Gleeson’s character McGinn aptly describes it when he tells Amsterdam, “That war is a thousand years old and more. We never expected it to follow us here. It didn’t. It was waiting for us when we landed.” The Irish were no strangers to oppression, so it should really come as no big shock that they would fight back.
Gangs of New York is certainly a Hollywood film, not a historical documentary. But it does successfully use various true events and even a few people to deftly tell the story.
